The King (Gentlemen Rogues 2)

She showed us to her table. There were several bottles of champagne and food laid out. “I’ve been here for a minute. I have some friends who are just in the washroom.”

I stood straighter at that. Friends?

“I insist you join me."

"Then join you we shall," Lock said.

Once our glasses were poured and we were settled in, I felt on edge, and Lock’s hand pressed my lower back trying to rub soothing circles on my skin. I was waiting for Webster to show up. But he didn’t come.

After about five minutes, Graciella‘s phone buzzed and she looked at it. She rolled her eyes dramatically and excused herself. “If you’ll just pardon me for one moment. I’ll be right back. You keep on enjoying your drinks.”

Before she even stood, my instincts told me she was up to no good. I watched her closely as she headed toward the loo, and then Lock and I were on our feet. Him to the first exit, me to the other.

In our comm units, Saint was monitoring her movements. “It might be a false alarm. From the looks of it, she is actually going into the loo. But watch the exits anyway.“

After five minutes with no sign of her from either of us, I headed into the loo just to be sure. And it was empty. Fuck!

I ran out pressing my comm unit. “She’s gone. Where the hell did she go?”

Lock and I had a shorthand between us now I didn’t even need to tell him to start a standard grid search. If she wasn’t where she was supposed to be, chances were we’d been made before we even walked in there. The likelihood that Webster hadn’t told her about me was slim, but it had been worth a shot. Unfortunately, our only lead had pulled a Houdini.

She’d played us. And now we had nowhere to go. We were dead in the water.

That inner voice started to pick at me.

Of course you failed. Did you really think you were going to be the one to pull this off? Gabe was right.

I shook it off. There was no time for that bullshit. I had an asset to find.

* * *

Saffron

I had made a mistake.I should’ve listened when Gabe insisted we just snatch her up and secure her in a safe house until she agreed to cooperate. I thought working our angle would be better for us.

I was wrong.

I ran down the east corridor, making sure to double-check my map. There was no street exit there, so she would have had to backtrack. Saint was checking hotel security cameras. So where the hell had she gone?

“Saint, come in.“

“I’ve got you loud and clear, Heir."

I startled. Being in the field meant people were going to use my call sign. I wasn’t sure I’d thought about that, but it was a problem for another day. “Got anything on the cameras?“

“I’ve got nothing. There are a couple of blind spots. She could’ve gone down the service elevator, or hell, even into a guest room. I have no idea.”

I ground my teeth. “King, what about you?"

“Nothing yet. Let’s just run the pattern.”

Yes, that was protocol, but something was eating at me. Something was not right. I double-checked my exit, heading down to her floor again. “I’m headed to her room. I’ll just double-check that we didn’t somehow miss it.”

“Copy,” was Lock’s response.

“Rook, can you get me into room 604?"

“Hold please.”